Our Reviews 5

Bella Cuba Miami

A FORK ON THE ROAD

Bella Cuba: An international love story

BY LINDA BLADHOLM

food@herald.com

Bella Cuba Restaurant brings family-run warmth to Miami Beach by way of Dublin, Ireland -- an unlikely route that began with the love story of chef-owner Juan Carlos Jimenez and his Ukrainian wife, Larisa.
After finishing high school in the Cuban port city of Cienfuegos in 1979, Juan Carlos took advantage of the Soviet exchange programs then available to study engineering at a university in Zaporozche in what is now western Ukraine. That's where he met Larisa, who was studying business. They fell in love, married and, by the time they settled in Cienfuegos, had a son, Alex. Larisa found work as a translator (Russian to Spanish) at a petroleum refinery; Juan Carlos worked first as an engineer and later in food service at a tourist hotel.
Each year on their way to visit Larisa's family in Ukraine, the couple had a stopover in Ireland. They loved its lush greenness and thought it would offer a brighter future for Alex and his little brother, Omar. They settled in Dublin in 1994 after Juan Carlos got temporary permission to leave Cuba, and never went back.
He followed his passion for cooking, working in restaurants and studying at culinary schools in France and Spain. In 1998, the family opened what they believe is the first and only Cuban restaurant in Ireland, also named Bella Cuba.
Having succumbed to Miami's Latin charms on several visits, the couple decided to leave their now-grown sons in charge of the Dublin restaurant and try their luck in South Florida. They bought a house in Kendall and found restaurant space on Collins Avenue just north of Lincoln Road.
The simple decor is brightened by lovely paintings of Cuban landscapes and tropical fruit. (A still life of a halved papaya spiked with paper-bag sails is particularly charming.)
Bella Cuba serves mojitos and daiguiris, but because the restaurant is only licensed for beer and wine, the drinks are made with a low-alcohol rum (best sipped quickly before the ice melts). Drink them with hot ham or chicken croquettes served with Thousand Island-brandy sauce for dunking.
Another starter, timbale de camarones, brings smoky grilled shrimp with a mound of guacamole on greens with a balsamic reduction and crisp fried yuca sticks. Swordfish escabeche, lightly pickled with a side of mango-chile salsa.
Entrees include mojo-marinated roast pork with tostones and yuca fritters and chorizo-stuffed, grilled chicken breast with mustard-saffron sauce.
Fat fillets of red snapper are rubbed with lemon and garlic, dipped in shredded coconut and pan-seared to form a crust, then finished in the oven and served in a small lake of delicate coconut milk-lobster stock sauce.
Although the emphasis here is on meat and seafood, there's a innovative vegetarian entrée consisting of a whole red bell pepper stuffed with chopped mushrooms, green beans, cherry tomatoes and olives in a white wine sauce. The pepper is topped with creamy goat cheese and broiled, served upright in a pool of tart creamy tamarind sauce.
If you have room, try the coconut flan or layered chocolate torte. Everything is homemade, and the welcome couldn't be warmer.

Linda Bladholm's latest book is Latin and Caribbean Grocery Stores Demystified.

Place: Bella Cuba Restaurant.
Address: 1659 Washington Ave., Miami Beach.
Contact: 305-672-7466.
Hours: Noon-11 p.m. Monday-Saturday.
Prices: Soups $4-$5.50, appetizers $6.50-$7.50, entrees $14-$25, desserts $4.